Need some drum recording advice

S

Sonic_Particle

New member
Me and my band have been attempting to record for the past year. A lot of it has wound up being more of a learning experience. In the mixes I've been creating I've noticed that my kick drum tracks aren't all that great. They just don't pop through the mix well enough. As is, my drummer uses an 8 ply maple 22x18" Kick drum. Not sure of the heads he prefers. I've recently convinced him to start to utilize plastic beaters to increase the amount of attack we'll get. I was hoping for some advice on tuning? Maybe mic selection? As is, I have a Shure PG52 and a Samson Q-Kick available to me. Maybe there's a certain position that would be good to use? As is, we've used the PG52 about midway into the shell and pointed towards the beater. But even then, it seems I end up capturing more low end than anything. The music that were trying to record is pretty much metal. Hope someone can help!
 
Post a sample in the MP3 Clinic.

A lot of metal uses drum replacement. The sound of the actual kick drum gets replaced with a sampled kick drum.

I haven't used a PG52, but if it's similar to the Beta52 it's pretty woofy. I often find myself cutting around 200Hz and boosting something up in the click range.
 
A "metal" kick sound is nothing like an actual kick sound. There are generally three things you can do for that typewriter metal kick sound:

1) Process the shit out of your kick tracks with EQ and compression. Don't be afraid to mangle those tracks with wild settings.
2) Double mic the kick. One mic on the inside, one outside at the beater. Blend the two for attack and boom. Then go to option 1.
3) Sample replace, which is how most metal kick drum recordings are actually done.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Post a sample in the MP3 Clinic.

A lot of metal uses drum replacement. The sound of the actual kick drum gets replaced with a sampled kick drum.

I haven't used a PG52, but if it's similar to the Beta52 it's pretty woofy. I often find myself cutting around 200Hz and boosting something up in the click range.
Click to expand...

I've tried drum replacement, and it's awesome for replacing the core of the sound but I've found that I can't find a sample that has enough attack, or doesn't sound like a robot. So I was hoping to craft an awesome kick sound with the mics I have (forgot to mention that I also have a DIY subkick) and then mix it in and more than likely automate it to make it sit well in the mix.

The PG52 is pretty darn woofy. I tried a cut around 150 but I'm going to try to cut it around 200 like you've suggested. I've also boosted in the click range, and it seems that combo gets me closer to the sound I'm striving for. But if I could get closer to the sound I'm going for in the recording stage that would be even better.

The Q-Kick is a little more snappy, so I may try that for my inside mic instead.
 
Greg_L said:
A "metal" kick sound is nothing like an actual kick sound. There are generally three things you can do for that typewriter metal kick sound:

1) Process the shit out of your kick tracks with EQ and compression. Don't be afraid to mangle those tracks with wild settings.
2) Double mic the kick. One mic on the inside, one outside at the beater. Blend the two for attack and boom. Then go to option 1.
3) Sample replace, which is how most metal kick drum recordings are actually done.
Click to expand...

Haha that all would be useful if my band were a LOT heavier and all the heavy tweaking were going to get covered up with a huge mix. But there's a good bit of room in the mix, so anything too crazy and the tracks start to sound bad.

Thus far I've been double micing the kick with a PG52 inside and a DIY subkick on the outside (mixed in very subtley). I've thought about micing the beaters from outside the shell. I may give that a try.
 
I've got a beta 52 and a DIY subkick and what I did was put the 52 on the inside, pointed at the beater and 2 - 3 inches away.
I scoop from about 200 to 250 with afairly wide Q and no bottom EQ boost. Just flat or a slight cut.
I'll sprinkle a couple of db on the top end coming into about 5-6k and up.
I blend the subkick in with that for the oomph and it ends up being a pretty good kick.

I'm still fartin around with tuning but it seems like gettin the batter head tightened up to just a little past wrinkles is helping to get some extra click. The reso gets tuned to wherever the hell it needs to get some actual tone outta it.

I'm no pro at this by any means but this has been workin pretty well for me. Maybe somethin here will help.
:drunk:
 
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